Hu Jia - Sakharov Prize 2008

Chinese human rights defender, Hu Jia, was awarded the European Parliament’s 2008 Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought today during a special ceremony in Strasbourg.

He couldn’t receive the prize in person of course, because Chinese authorities put him in jail for three-and-a-half years last April for demanding more human rights in his country. His wife, Zeng Jinyan, couldn’t be here either, because in addition to being his wife, she is also a human rights activist - a cyberdissident - and Beijing confiscated her passport so she couldn’t travel out of China and attend the ceremony. Not surprising considering they won’t even let her leave her home freely. Zeng Jinyan and the couple’s young daughter have been under house arrest since 2006.

Zeng Jinyan was however able to address MEPs in a recorded video message. In a moving testimony, she said this prize was an encouragement to all human rights defenders in China: “There are now a great many exceptional people and people of goodwill in Chinese society who are going to great lengths to find ways to make the real situation in China known, and to express deeply-felt views, and the Internet is providing them with a very interesting platform. But unfortunately there is sometimes a very high price to be paid for this.” Hu Jia, like so many others, has paid this price with his freedom.

Despite all this, Zeng Jinyan said she was “full of hope of soon being able to hail the arrival of an open China.” “We are full of energy for China to become a country at peace,” she continued. She also said she and Hu Jia were planning to use the Sakharov Prize money to set-up a foundation for the families of human rights activists.

Today is also the 20th anniversary of the Sakharov Prize. On this occasion, several Sakharov Prize winners since 1998 were present. Andrei Sakharov’s widow, Elena Bonner asked the Parliament if it had really done everything it could to defend Hu Jia and his family against a state with whom Europe wants to have good commercial relations. She reaffirmed Sakharov’s belief on rights human rights: “One should never make concessions. Human rights are the basis of civilisation.”

On this 20th anniversary, Reporters Without Borders, past Sakharov Prize-winners and the European Parliament officially launched the Sakharov Network in an effort to support human rights defenders around the world. Many ideas to develop and consolidate this network are already emerging: A bureau, passports for freedom, Sakharov winners to be ambassadors for human rights in their country, a special fund. Positive and ambitious proposals which have all legitimacy to receive equally ambitious political and financial support.